How to Use PCSX2 Emulator to Play PlayStation 2 Games on PC?

PCSX2 is the first PS2 emulator that vividly proved that PS2 emulation is possible. The development of PCSX2 began in 2001 by Linuzappz and Shadow who were programmers for the Playstation emulator PCSX reloaded. Today it has a large game compatibility that keeps growing with each new version. The current development version is reported to be compatible with around 94% of the currently 2562 tested games. A full compatibility list can be found on the official site .

1.Interface & Features

Although the performance bottleneck in most cases is the CPU rather than the GPU, hardware requirements are largely game dependent. This is especially in the software mode in which only the CPU is used for emulation while in hardware mode, the GPU emulates the graphics. In order for it to function effectively, the following system specifications are ideal.

MINIMUM

RECOMMENDED

OPERATING SYSTEM

Windows XP, X86 or higher

Windows 7 by 64

Windows 8 by 64

CPU

SSE2 support, Pentium 4 and up, Athlon 64 and up

Modern quad core CPU. Intel i5-2400 or AMD FX-8350 or higher

MEMORY

2 GB RAM or more

GRAPHICS HARDWARE

Pixel Shader 2.0

Modern DirectX 11 GPU

Advantages over the PlayStation 2 console

• It has a custom resolution of up to 4096 x 4096 and also features Textile Filtering to make your PS2 games better than their original HD makeup.

• Capable of saving states, enabling you to quick save and load almost anywhere in your game.

• It can use any controller that works on windows e.g PS3, Xbox 360 e.t.c

• Ability to increase or decrease the game speed by using the built in frame limiter.

• Ability to record in full HD with the use of the built in F12 video recorder.

PCSX2 emulator has a rating of 7.9 (90943 votes) and can be downloaded from the link below:

2.PS2 Games that are Available for PCSX2 Emulator

The total number of tested games that are compatible with PCSX2 emulator is 2562. Compatibility only means that the game won't crush, lock up or enter a loop. This implies that in many compatible games, there could be bugs, missing post-processing effects and shadows. This is especially the case in the hardware mood. However, if the bugs are impossible to work around, it is advised to use software mode although this is slower due to it using only the CPU for emulation. Below find a list of the top 10 PS2 games available for PCSX2 emulator.

10,000 bullets

18 Wheeler - American pro tracker

187 ride or die

24 -the game

25 to life

4 x 4 Evolution

7 SINS

7 WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Ace Combat- Squadron Leader

Action Girlz Racing

3.How to Download Game ROMs for Xeon Emulator

Emulator files are often unrecognized by your antivirus software and detected as malware (viruses, worms etc) No need to worry. This is always a false alarm. In Xbox or PlayStation, disk images are called ISOS and you will need to download them from a torrent website like KickAssTorrents. You can also download from the website below.

4.How to Use PCSX2 Emulator to Play PS2 Games

PCSX2 is a PlayStation 2 emulator and a free program that tries to replicate PS2console to enable you to play PS2 games on your personal computer. In order to effectively use the PCSX2 emulator, you must extract the PS2 BIOS file from your legally obtained PS2 system, install and configure PCSX2 emulator software and then load a PS2 game from your optical drive.

1.Things you will need

• PlayStation 2 game disc

• PCSX2 emulator

• Flash drive

• PlayStation 2

• PCSX2 BIOS dumper file

• Disc image burning software

2.Then simply follow the following procedure

Download the PCSX2 BIOS dumper file and save it to your desktop.

Right click the file and select "extract all" navigate to your desktop and click 'extract' to unzip the folder

Open your disk burning software and create a CD with the extracted dump BIOS files on it.

Insert a blank flash drive with at least 512MB of free space into the USB port on your PS2.

Now insert the disk containing the dump BIOS file into your PS2 and run the system. The BIOS file will automatically be saved into the flash drive. Wait until it displays 'Dumping NVM completed' on the screen. Switch off the system, remove the flash drive and insert it into an available USB port on your computer.

Now download the PCSX2 full installer and save it to your desktop.

Right click the file and select "extract all", navigate to your desktop and click "extract" to unzip the folder.

Open the file folder, locate the executable file within the folder and double click the file to initiate the installer. The PCSX2 installation wizard will begin.

Click 'select language'on the drop down menu and leave the rest to default. Click 'next' a dialogue box will appear.

Click create allow PCSX2 to create a folder to save the emulator files.

Click next, uncheck then "use default settings" then click browse to navigate to the PS2 BIOS file you saved to the flash drive.

Click Finish to complete the PCSX2 installation.

Now, double click the PCSX2 emulator file on the desktop to start the emulator.

Open your optical drive and insert a Sony PlayStation 2 game disc.

Click file and select "Run CD/DVD" to load the game into the PCSX2 emulator.

3.Tips

• If tour computer is very old, PS2 emulator may not work properly as PS2 games requires a lot of graphics processing power.

• For best emulation, it is recommended to use disks with silver undersides. Disks with blue undersides can sometimes be difficult to read for a DVD laser.

• Due to the nature of emulation, even if you meet the recommended requirements some games might not run at full speed due to emulation bugs.